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1980 Moscow Olympic Games
The 1980 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event celebrated in Moscow in the Soviet Union. The 1980 Games were the first to be staged in Eastern Europe. The United States and a number of other countries boycotted the games because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, though some athletes from some of the boycotting countries participated in the games, under the Olympic Flag. This prompted the Soviet-led boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics. Some of the later events of the games were also nearly marred by the death and unauthorized mass funeral of the immensely popular and beloved singer-songwriter Vladimir Vysotsky. Moscow had previously hosted the World Championships in 1958 and would go on to host the World Championships the following year. Format of Competition The gymnastics competition at the 1980 Summer Olympics was carried out in three stages: *Competition I - The team competition/qualification round in which all gymnasts, including those who were not part of a team, performed both compulsory and optional exercises. The combined scores of all team members determined the final score of the team. The thirty-six highest scoring gymnasts in the all-around qualified to the individual all-around competition. The six highest scoring gymnasts on each apparatus qualified to the final for that apparatus. *Competition II - The individual all-around competition, in which those who qualified from Competition I performed exercises on each apparatus. The final score of each gymnast was composed of half the points earned by that gymnast during Competition I and all of the points earned by her in Competition II. *Competition III - The apparatus finals, in which those who qualified during Competition I performed an exercise on the individual apparatus on which she had qualified. The final score of each gymnast was composed of half the points earned by that gymnast on that particular apparatus during Competition I and all of the points earned by her on that particular apparatus in Competition III. Each country was limited to three gymnasts in the all-around final and two gymnasts in each apparatus final. Results Notable Moments *The USSR won 1 medal in the All-Around competition. In each Olympics before this they had always won 2 and in Rome 1960 had won all 3. In the Friendship Games at Olomouc '84 and at Seoul '88 they would win 2 again. In the Team Competition they won the gold medal for the eighth time, continuing the "gold" series started in 1952. *In the women's gymnastics event finals, a Romanian gymnast medals on each piece of apparatus for the first time: **Balance Beam – Nadia Comăneci (gold) **Floor – Nadia Comăneci (gold) **Uneven Bar – Emilia Eberle (silver) & Melita Ruhn (bronze) **Vault – Melita Ruhn (bronze) Controversy *There was a judging scandal when the Romanian head judge refused to post the score of her fellow Romanian Nadia Comăneci. This score gave Comaneci a silver medal behind Elena Davydova of the USSR, but the Romanian judge, Mili Simionescu, tried to persuade the other judges to increase Comaneci's score so that she would win gold. After the Olympics, Simionescu was severely criticized by the International Gymnastics Federation. Before the Los Angeles Olympics, the United States Gymnastics Federation proposed a change in the rules so that a head judge cannot interfere and meddle in the scoring of competitors. Medal Count Category:Olympic Games Category:1980 Competitions